Picture Credit: Twitter
Arsenal's miserable start to the Premier League 2021-22 continued on Saturday as their away trip to Etihad Stadium proved to be an unforgettable one for the fans. It was never going to be an easy match for the Gunners against a very strong Manchester City side. However, no one would have imagined that Mikel Arteta's side would completely surrender themselves half-way during the contest.
Ilkay Gundogan began the damage as he scored in the 7th minute itself to hand Man City a 1-0 advantage. Ferran Torres doubled the lead five minutes later and things went absolutely downhill for Arsenal in the 35th minute when Granit Xhaka was shown a straight red card. Gabriel Jesus scored the third goal few minutes later as the score at half-time read 3-0 in favour of the home side.
Rodri scores a mesmerizing goal at Etihad
The expressions on faces of the Gunners showed that the match was already done and dusted and it was just a matter of how many goals City would be able to score by the end of 90 minutes. The next goal came quite early in the second half and it was the best of all on the day.
In the 53rd minute, Ferran Torres set up a ball in the path of Rodri inviting a shot from way outside the box. The Man City midfielder was expected to blast the shot off his laces. He indeed decided to shoot it delightfully with the inside of his boot as the ball went straight past Leno in the bottom corner.
Arsenal fans celebrate Rodri's goal
Although it was a goal deserving of all kinds of praise, Rodri received some appreciation from an unexpected part of the stadium. There were Arsenal fans sitting in the away section of Emirates who were clapping and celebrating the goal mocking their own team for a miserable performance. There was sarcasm written all over the Arsenal fans' celebrations as their side were facing their third consecutive defeat of the season.
Ferran Torres scored a late goal to complete an emphatic 5-0 win for Man City in the end. With this defeat, Arsenal have notably dropped down to last position with things getting from bad to worse for Mikel Arteta and his team.